The music blared but the dancing halted just two hours into the practice. The third day of rehearsals in L.A. was battering their bodies, reminding them that they were more than a decade older this time around.

Zac first eyed the woman and baby who had just walked in the door. Then his sweaty face turned to the choreographer who was studying his plans and wishes for the particular number that the group had just stalled.

Kenny looked toward the door and smiled as Vanessa was the first to move toward Stacey and Alex. Even with sweaty clothes and skin she clapped her hands together and smiled genuinely as the little boy held his hands out to her and climbed into her arms.

"Thank you X-Man!" Vanessa turned away from Stacey and walked toward the other females on the hardwood floor to show off the baby. Stacey watched them take a few steps and then headed over to Zac.

"I didn't mean to stop the show." She commented as she got closer to the area where Zac and Kenny were standing.

Her husband turned toward her and let his forehead drop down onto her shoulder. The sweat quickly seeped through the blouse she had on but Stacey didn't care. She reached her other hand around to run through Zac's mop of hair that was sticking in every direction.

She pulled a bottle of water from the diaper bag she had carried in and offered it to Zac. He raised his head at last, opened the bottle and began guzzling as they both looked toward the new star of the moment, their son.

"I'm glad we got together with Nessa before the rehearsals started." Stacey admitted. She looked down at Kenny who caught her eye and nodded. "Sorry Kenny. I know I interrupted…"

"I have a feeling you had an invitation to come by around this time though, didn't you?" Kenny looked toward Zac with a playful, fatherly scowl.

Zac pointed toward the dark haired girl with the baby. "It was all her. I had nothing to do with it." He held his hands up in surrender. "When we left here last night Ness said to have Stacey and Alex come by today. She hadn't seen Alex in a week and she knew it would be late when we finish…plus he's already had his nap."

Kenny raised his eyebrows. "All this got worked out in Malibu?"

Zac glanced toward Stacey. "I don't know that it's all worked out. But we're mending the fences I guess you could say. It's still kinda awkward to see her holding Alex though." He admitted.

"How are the rehearsals going so far?" Stacey asked. "You guys have run lines at our house and Vanessa's house for the past two weeks. Now you're learning the dance routines. What happens next?"

Zac looked at her. "This and running lines for the next week, then we move it all to Utah and try to put things together on location."

Stacey nodded. "Sounds pretty intense." She felt the beat of the music that must have been one of their numbers. She again looked out at the dancers still on the floor, the one holding her son in particular.

The weeks beyond their weekend in Malibu had been a change for the family. Zac felt a stronger pull from Stacey wanting to be close to him. They had seen Vanessa once that first week when she came by and dropped off revised scripts. The next week had held two visits, one at the Efron's home and one when they met at Vanessa's.

The last four weeks Stacey swore it was almost like Zac and Vanessa were back together…except that V was spending the 'together' time with Alex, not Zac. She was a little concerned about the change of attitude but didn't want to do anything that might affect the movie.

She shivered as she watched a look pass between Zac and Vanessa, one that pulled the smile from Vanessa's face and left her simply staring into Zac's eyes from a few yard's away.

Stacey looked up at Zac who was holding a firm gaze on the brown irises. Mrs. Efron felt the intensity of the stare and wasn't surprised at all when Vanessa dismissed herself from Monique and Ashley without even giving them a chance to hold Alex.

"Everything ok?" Vanessa stood in front of Zac who stretched his neck and shoulders.

He gently took the baby from Vanessa's arms and cuddled his son to his chest. He rubbed his cheek against the boy's soft skin and closed his eyes as he breathed in the soft scent.

Zac looked back at Vanessa before handing Alex back to Stacey. "I think we need to get back to work."

Stacey wasn't sure if that was a signal for her to leave, or simply that Zac wanted Vanessa to bring his baby back. Either way she watched Vanessa nod almost aimlessly while still watching the blue halos of both Zac and Alex's eyes. Stace felt her stomach practically flip at the supposedly harmless stare. It suddenly hit her, six weeks since the trip to Malibu, the connection between her husband and his first love was definitely still there.

ZVZVZV

Vanessa and Stacey stood side by side as they watched equipment and suitcases being loaded into the private aircraft. The cast and much of the crew were ready to head to Utah. Several other significant others were wandering around the location watching the process. Zac was right in the middle of putting luggage on the cart to make sure it got onto the jet.

Stacey practically chewed the skin off her knuckle as she rubbed and nipped at the finger that was attached to her mouth. She nervously rolled Alex back and forth in his stroller as her eyes followed Zac around the tarmac. She glanced at Vanessa whose eyes were glued to the stroller, for the moment.

Zac's wife had struggled the last few days with the thoughts of Zac being with Vanessa and hours away from home. She had stuck to her guns though, insisting that she and Alex would not join the cast in Utah. The filmmaking had to be done. Zac and Vanessa were beginning to find that bond again. And Stacey knew she couldn't be there watching every moment. That would affect their on-screen chemistry. Not to mention the fact that a green-eyed monster with auburn hair may just show herself…and none of them wanted that.

Instead she had chosen to make sure that her husband knew what he was leaving behind. She had stayed up until Zac came home from rehearsals, well past midnight a couple of times. And when his exhausted body had fallen on the couch she massaged his shoulders, gently caressed his temples and then undressed him. She coaxed him to their bedroom and turned down the comforter then helped him into bed. Stacey had pressed her body as close to his as she could possibly get before both of them drifted to sleep.

And, as she expected, he would awaken with a need that had to be satiated before either of them came out of the bed. Those were the moments when Stacey would talk to her barely coherent husband. That is when she professed that she loved him more than anything, and would do whatever he wanted her to do. She was his wife, the mother of his son, and she didn't want that to change.

Those were the wee morning hours when she refused to let Vanessa's name come from his mouth. The second Zac entered her body she wrapped herself around him. "Open your eyes My Love. I want to know you're making love to me." She commanded softly. And Zac had obliged with just two or three possessive words, "My Kitten" or "Purr for me."

This morning though there were no words spoken when Zac awoke and pulled Stacey's body on top of his. He barely took time to make sure she was ready for him to enter her before merging their bodies together. Stacey screamed as he thrust up into her with eyes clenched shut. He held her waist down on his body as he pushed up, feeling her muscles wrap around him. She couldn't help but scrape her fingernails down his chest as she felt the spasming orgasm rack her body.

As soon as Zac's body answered hers he wrapped his arms around her naked back and pulled her down on top of his chest. "I love you Stace. You don't forget that while I'm gone, ok?"

Stacey kissed the scratches over his breast and moved her face to nuzzle his neck. She lifted her face over his weakly but found the strength to place her lips on his and wedge her tongue into his heated mouth. She ran the tips of her index fingers to the corners of his mouth and splayed her palms over his cheeks.

"Don't forget what's waiting for you here at home, promise?" she began to lift herself off his groin until Zac's hands moved back to her waist to hold her in place for just another moment.

Zac did his best to smile at her. "I'm gonna miss this." He intentionally twitched his penis inside of her already-overly sensitive chamber.

Stacey sat straight up on his body and looked down into his eyes. "Make sure you do." She instructed.

As her mind moved back into the day at hand Stacey looked toward Vanessa. She caught the older woman's eyes looking just as serious as her own. Stacey took a deep breath and reached a hand out to Vanessa's arm. She swallowed nervously and then let her hand slide down the olive skin to grasp her friend's hand.

"I know…" Stacey began, "Zac and I know that your mind is changing…about the baby stuff." She pushed out. Vanessa turned her head but kept looking into Stacey's eyes. "But please don't…" Stacey shook her head vigorously. "Not this trip Nessa. Please don't tell him to come back to you yet."

The tears streaked tracks down Stacey's cheeks as she looked at her son. "You know I love you Vanessa. But you made your choice. I need Zac. I love him with every part of me."

Vanessa then looked to her feet and then into the stroller to see Alex's eyes shining up at her. The little boy raised his hands wanting to be held. Vanessa looked back at Stacey before releasing her hand, kneeling down and beginning to unbuckle Stacey's son.

Vanessa pulled Alex into her arms and squeezed his little body against her own. "Stacey…" she placed kisses on Alex's cheek and head. "I can take care of them now." The look on her face was practically pleading.

When Stacey shook her head, telling Vanessa that she was moving into dangerous territory, Vanessa's tears made their way through the emotional ducts. "Take care of you." Stacey stepped forward and began to unlatch Alex from Vanessa's embrace. "I know you love them both. I know you won't hurt either of them. But right now, I'll take care of them."

The warning tone wasn't what Vanessa expected. The entire conversation was nearly a nightmare in her mind. Her one consolation was a fact that Stacey had set right in front of her. For the next two weeks Zac would be in her company, not his wife's. For two weeks she would get the chance to see if the Zac Efron who was in love with Vanessa Hudgens still existed.

Vanessa gripped to the little boy one last time before letting his mother pull him away. "We'll see you in two weeks?" she tried to ask meekly.

Stacey nodded, letting Vanessa place one more hesitant kiss against Alex's temple. "See you in two weeks."

The women separated as Zac approached, noticing the tears on both of their faces. He reached for Vanessa first but she twisted away from him and pointed toward Stacey. Zac immediately placed an arm around his wife's shoulders.

"Hey? What just happened here?" he questioned with thoughts of their morning flashing through his mind.

"Just a step into the future." Stacey finally answered him. She stepped forward deliberately and maneuvered her lips to meet her husband's. In Vanessa's direct line of sight she wrapped one hand around Zac's neck and threaded her fingers through his hair to keep the kiss intact. In her other arm she held their son.

Vanessa looked on helplessly, wondering what the next eight weeks could possibly hold…for her.

ZVZVZV

The first week of rehearsals in Utah was like coming back home. The various locations where the first three movies had been made were available again. The actors and actresses wandered through the halls of their old high school and became familiar again with the houses that portrayed the lives of the East High Wildcats.

After just four days on location Zac and Vanessa sat in front of the house and looked at the back gate. Tomorrow the plan was for Zac to climb the tree in the back yard again and hoist himself onto the balcony of that home. They decided to come to the venue that night before just to check the setting.

Vanessa sighed as she looked out the window of the rental car admiring the front door and the white plank fence and gate that led to the back yard. "Do you remember…" she kept her voice low but didn't turn to look at Zac.

Zac nodded and watched her movements, slow and tense. "Neither one of us wanted to leave this house."

Vanessa nodded. Zac could feel her chewing on her bottom lip nervously. He raised a heavy hand and reached toward her pulling a strand of hair behind her ear. She turned to look at him with eyes wide and worried.

Zac pulled his hand away and sat just looking at her. Minutes passed without either of them saying anything. Finally Zac swallowed and his lips began to press together then separate as he tried to define what he wanted to say.

"We still have a lot of loose ends that never got tied up don't we?" he wasn't sure exactly what he wanted as an answer from her.

Vanessa shrugged her shoulders as she continued watching him. "It's not like they would make a difference now, is it?" she questioned as she purposefully kept her feelings in check.

They sat silently again as Zac thought. "Do you have any idea how torn I am?" he began and moved his eyes to look away from her. "I do love Stacey and I'm not going to leave her. She took me in and kept me from absolutely killing myself when we decided to end things. That's…" he looked back at Vanessa with questioning eyes, "that's what happened, wasn't it? We ended…things. We stopped dating, we stopped seeing each other and attending the same events. We stopped sleeping together, stopped touching each other. All those things ended…but the love never did."

Vanessa took her hand and ran it through her hair pulling the curled strands back away from her face as she leaned her neck back. She didn't have an answer that would satisfy what Zac said.

"Why did you let me go to Stacey?" he asked and again reached a hand across the console of the vehicle to touch Vanessa's shoulder.

Vanessa reached up with her right hand and put it over Zac's hand, gently pushing it away from her body. She took a deep breath and started to speak but then stopped again. She licked her lips and dipped her eyebrows in thought before trying to look at him again.

"It all made sense…then…Zac." The conversation in her head sounded more than familiar. It was one they had had over and over and over again in the year before their breakup.

Vanessa opened the door and began to get out of the car. Zac shook his head a moment and watched as she stood up on the curb and began to walk toward the back gate. When his cell phone buzzed in his pocket he ignored it. His heart could still feel the hurt that was inside Vanessa's. And he decided at that very moment that he wanted the absolute truth from her.

He climbed out of the driver's side door and turned toward the house, slamming the door and placing his arms against the roof of the vehicle as he spoke. "You can't walk away from this Vanessa. The damage is already done. You can't let this keep eating away at both of us. You know that."

She turned around to face him and took a few more steps backwards. "There is more damage that can be done Zac. You have a wife and a son…a family…"

"And you're becoming part of that family again. Alex loves you. And you love him. You can't deny that." Zac offered. He began to follow behind her as Vanessa reached the fence and lifted the latch to open the gate.

Zac jogged a couple of steps to catch up with her and grabbed the wooden portal before it could slam shut. They both shivered as they looked up to the balcony where their love was born nearly twenty years before.

Vanessa stood still, staring upwards at the place where they had shared their first kiss and where a young, gap-toothed Zac had told her that he was falling in love with her. She had smiled at him, tilted her head to the side and answered with a "Sure you are." Sarcastic line. But in a few weeks she came to believe his words. And she had repeated them back to him on that same balcony.

"Vanessa what changed?" he stepped next to her and dared to place both of his hands on her shoulders. "Damage or no damage, family or not, I love you and I care about you and I worry about you. You are in my heart. That's not going to change. But I need to know…" he felt her shoulders give way under his hands and her head shook as she stepped away from him.

"We went over this practically three hundred sixty-five days straight. I just don't want to have a baby. Call me vain or selfish if you want to." She threw her voice over her shoulder in his direction as Zac shook his head.

"I'm not naïve enough to believe that now! Don't you think I've thought about this every day since we ended our relationship? Do you not love me enough to tell me the truth? Vanessa you obviously didn't while we were together. Otherwise we wouldn't be apart now. I thought you loved me with all your heart." His breath began to shift in his chest as the words poured out.

"We sat up on that balcony and promised our futures to each other, our hearts and souls and bodies and minds. When we made love the first time that was supposed to be our beginning of forever together. How many times did we sit up there and talk about our babies running around, and how we wanted to bring them back here to show them where Mommy and Daddy fell in love. Then all of a sudden I'm gone for a couple of months and that dream … our future just washed away? Where did the love go Vanessa? Where?"

She placed her hand over her mouth to keep from choking on the tears that were falling from her eyes. She tried her best to stay silent just to get through the moment . The only thing she knew for sure was that she couldn't answer him. The urge to open her mouth and speak to him was excruciating, because she knew the words that would come out.

With her silence Zac found himself angry. He stepped in front of her and placed a shaking finger under her chin. "Vanity is a load of crap Vanessa. You would be beautiful carrying a baby. So quit feeding me this shit and tell me the truth. What the hell happened? What did I do to you to make you change our whole world?"

As hard as she struggled he wouldn't let go of her chin. He wanted an answer and he wanted her to look him in the eyes and give it to him. After a moment of letting the emotions seep into her skin she grasped his wrist and squeezed.

Zac saw a fire in her eyes that hadn't burned there in years. He wouldn't release her as she spoke, although he knew her voice would be as soft as the breeze. They stood there frozen until Vanessa decided to answer him.

"You got me pregnant."

ZVZVZV

Vanessa felt her heart pumping harder than she had ever experienced in her life. Four words left her crumpled, sitting on the ground with knees bent to hide her face from the inexplicable look on Zac's. Her arms were wound tightly around her shins, pulling her body into a ball with tears falling and her gasping for a breath.

Zac took three steps backwards and stared at the life that sat on the ground in front of him. His eyes widened, the blue turned to midnight with a haze of red flickering from the beams that stared at the stranger before him.

He felt himself breathe, although it didn't seem like an involuntary action. He felt like he had to force the air into his chest because his entire body was numb. It's all a dream. His mind ran the words through his ears. It's all a life-ending, love-breaking, lying dream.

"You're lying." The phrase seeped from his lips.

Vanessa's shaking body froze. She lifted her eyes with a tortured pull of her head to aim them at the sandy hair on top of his head.

"Like hell I am." She shifted her body to seem less vulnerable.

"You couldn't keep something like that from me Vanessa." His voice rumbled with unfathomable hurt.

"You weren't here. You have no idea." Her voice lowered nearly an octave to match his gruffness.

"Then give me one." His volume raised. "Give me an idea. Why would the woman I love with all my heart and soul not tell me about a baby that we shared?" But before Vanessa could begin to speak he jumped again. "No, don't tell me. I'm not in the mood for some sick joke tonight. I thought maybe we could get to the bottom of this…whatever this is that we have." He pressed his left palm to his forehead and pushed it through his hair letting his fingers snarl in the tangles of his sandy brown mess.

"It's not a sick joke Zac. I lived it. I loved it. It scared the hell out of me and then I lost it. And I swore I would never go through that again." Vanessa pushed herself off the ground and wrapped her arms around herself.

"You were in Haiti Zac." She chuckled sarcastically. "I went through hell."

Before the discussion could heat to boiling Zac's phone buzzed again in his pocket. The hint of a ringtone told him it was his wife calling. He hadn't spoken to Stacey since the morning and knew it was past Alex's bedtime. "Damn it." He muttered under his breath.

He pulled the device from his pocket and didn't think at all when he accepted the call. "What?"

"Zac…?" Stacey's voice spoke tentatively from eleven hours away.

"Just a minute." His voice was harsh and he looked at Vanessa standing with arms crossed, gritting her teeth as she looked at him. "Get in the car." He demanded.

Vanessa shook her head in defiance. "You wanted this conversation, you got it. You don't want to believe what I'm telling you…that's fine. It's exactly why I didn't tell you about it before. Mr. Perfect… Bull shit… I carried your fault inside of me for almost two damn months. I won't go through that again. I won't!"

"Zac, please? What's going on?" Stacey could only hear Vanessa's shouts. Between that sound and the tone of Zac's voice she knew something was desperately wrong.

"Get in the damn car." He ordered again.

Stacey heard a slam of some sort and then her husband's breath struggling on the line. She waited for some kind of confirmation that he was back with her.

"Stace? Can this wait? This…just isn't a good time." He finally got the greeting to leave his mouth.

"I need you Zac." Stacey tried to state the fact calmly. "I don't know what's going on there…but I need you. I love you."

Zac sucked in a deep breath, trying to get his nerves anywhere near calm. "Is Alex ok?" he asked plainly.

"Yes. He's fine. He's asleep now." She paused for a second just listening to Zac's breath. "What's going on there Zac? I heard Vanessa yelling. You're angry. What's happening?"

Zac froze. His mind heard Vanessa's words again, 'You got me pregnant.' The sound reverberated through his mind and his ears. He could see her on the ground in front of him curled as tightly as she could be. 'I carried your 'fault' inside of me for almost two damn months.'

Reality began to sink in. Zac's palms began to sweat as the two conversations began to merge and converge on his brain. On the phone was his wife and mother of his son. In the car was the woman he loved more than life itself…a woman who had apparently carried the baby he so desperately wanted.

Zac practically fell on the picnic table that stood on the patio as he attempted to shuffle his feet toward the gate. He held himself up with one hand as the other held tightly to his phone. "She's been to hell Stace. Now I'm getting ready to go. I need you here." His voice choked with the burn of bile that was beginning to make its way up his throat. "I don't care how you get here…" he drifted with eyes fixated on the gate that would lead him back to the car where Vanessa was supposed to be waiting.

Stacey sucked in a breath and felt her heart begin to rip. "I'm on my way."

12ZVZVZV12